We must not judge any act without knowing the facts of the
case. “See that man! He has sat on the bank all the morning
throwing pebble after pebble into the water. How lazy he must
be!” “Is this a fair judgment?” I inquire. And at the end of a
warm discussion, I tell my pupils how Turner, the artist, did
that to watch the surface of the water in motion and learn how
to paint its sheen and color. “A child is walking quietly along
the sidewalk. Suddenly a rough looking man seizes her and pushes
her into the gutter. Is he cruel?” Of course every one answers
yes, at first. But no--a mass of ice is about to fall from the
roof above the child’s head. Her assaulter turns out to be her
protector.
In teaching, of course, every good teacher passes from examples
to principles. Through such examples as these we elicit the fact
that we can judge no act on sight, for every act is open to a
good or a bad interpretation. The eager energy members of my
class show in pointing out possible good motives for acts that
at first sight look selfish makes me feel sure that they will
not in later life condemn unheard. “The special part of this
ethics course which stands out in my mind as important,” writes
one of my pupils, “is that on right and wrong judgments. It
makes me realize how little right we have to judge people from
appearances. There are so many sides of people’s characters
that we don’t half consider or appreciate.”--ELLA LYMAN
CABOT, “Proceedings of the National Education Association,”
1909.
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